On the transmission side, an image, for example a black-and-white individual image, is picked up and stored on request by a simple camera, for example with a wide-angle lens and optical viewfinder. The image data of the image message are suitably compressed and subsequently coded with a telecommunications-channel-specific code and transmitted, preferably unidirectionally, indirectly or directly to a telecommunications network (for example a wired or wireless telephone network). On the reception side, the image data are accepted--in a way corresponding to the process on the transmission side--either directly or indirectly. After decompression and decoding, the image data are stored in a screen store and transmitted to the screen, for example an LCD flat screen, according to the instructions of a screen controller. Both the transmission device and the reception device can thus be designed to be compact--for the purpose of fast image transmission combined with a simple switching and programming structure--, mobile and independent of telecommunications channels.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A mobile electronic camera for sending images comprising: a first assembly for optically capturing a transmission image motif and producing an image message from the transmission image motif; a second assembly configured to process the produced image message for transmission; connected to a telecommunication channel, the electronic monitor for receving the image message via the telecommunication channel; and a fourth assembly for controlling function sequences in the first, second, and third assemblies of the mobile electronic camera; wherein the mobile electronic camera is connectable both to a mobile wireless telecommunication device and to a wirebound telecommunication device, and the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured and connected in such a way that the image message is transmitted independent of a type of the telecommunication travel.
2. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the mobile wireless telecommunication device and the wirebound telecommunication device, the electronic camera and the electronic monitor are configured to form a telecommunication arrangement that is controlled by one of verbal communication between communication subscribers and remote control.
3. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the third assembly is connected directly to the telecommunication channel.
4. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the third assembly is connected to the telecommunication channel via an acoustic coupling to a telecommunication device selected from the group consisting of the mobile wireless telecommunication device and the wirebound telecommunication device.
5. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are contained in the mobile wireless telecommunication device.
6. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in clam 1, wherein the first assembly and the fourth assembly are constructed such that the image information contained in the image message is composed of 100.times.100 pixels having 16 shades of gray that are represented by 4 bits per image pixel.
7. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured in such a way that, of data bits defining the image pixels of the image information, initially only a most significant bit is transmitted and a next-most-significant bit is transmitted in subsequent image build-up phases.
8. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first and fourth assemblies are configured such that, beginning from a center point of the transmission image motif, pixels of the transmission image motif arranged toward an outside portion of the transmission image motif away from the center point are spirally arranged to form image information of the image message.
9. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured to transmit an error detection code together with the image message.
10. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured so that one of neighboring pixels and groups of pixels of the transmission image motif are arranged in one of a time-shifted mode and an interleaved mode to form image information of the image message.
11. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured such that a speed at which the image messages are transmitted is adapted to a quality of the telecommunications channel.
12. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured such that actual brightness values of the transmitted image message are assigned desired brightness values stored in an assignment table.
13. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 12, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are configured such that the actual brightness values are adapted to the desired brightness values stored in the assignment table to utilize a brightness dynamic range before the assignment.
14. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a first image message store for buffer-storing the image messages.
15. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first, second, third and fourth assemblies are remote-controllable.
16. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 15, wherein the fourth assembly is remote-controllable by dialing from a telephone.
17. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first assembly has an optical searching device that is configured for selection of an image motif area to be transmitted.
18. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first assembly for optically capturing the transmission image motifs includes one or more focusing devices.
19. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mobile electronic camera is a part of a telecommunication arrangement for transmitting images.
20. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mobile electronic camera is a part of a telecommunication arrangement for transmitting black-and-white images.
21. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mobile electronic camera is a part of a surveillance device.
22. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mobile electronic camera is a part of a telecommunication arrangement for targeted transmission of visual information.
23. The mobile electronic camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the electronic camera is directly coupleable with an electronic monitor.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
October 24, 1996
September 4, 2001
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